The use of liquid products pervades all aspects of life. There are many types of containers that hold these products. For many applications, the entire contents of a container may be used at one time. For other applications, only a small amount of the liquid product may be required for an application, such as washing detergents, bleaches, cooking oils, insecticides, etc. In cases where only a small amount of the product is required at any one time, there is usually a need to measure the amount of the product to use in that application. One common measuring means utilizes the container cap as the measuring device. The cap may have a built-in cup with various gradations or "fill lines" representing different liquid volumes. Other containers may have graduations along the side to assist in dispensing a desired amount of liquid. Where such measuring aids are not incorporated into the container itself, one may have to find other means to measure the amount of liquid necessary for a specific application. The extra time and effort needed to find and utilize a suitable measuring device presents added difficulties. The procedure of pouring the liquid from the storage container to a measuring container and then to the container in which the liquid is to be utilized is a tedious and time-consuming process. In addition, because of the variations in the size and shape, sight-measuring aids such as this can yield inaccurate and imprecise results.
There are many different containers that dispense fluid in measured amounts, where the container holds a substantially greater amount of the liquid relative to the dispensed amount. Many of these devices have the capacity to store, measure and dispense liquids without the need for sight measuring. Such characteristics are desirable especially when contact with the liquid could be harmful to humans, such as poisons, bleach, etc. Typically however, prior art devices capable of dispensing a measured volume of liquid are unduly complex in design and manufacture, undependable and expensive. In addition, the complex design of these prior art containers often inhibits all of the fluid within the containers from being dispensed. In other words, the designs result in an amount of fluid being trapped in their respective containers, being unable to be completely emptied.
Specifically, many such pouring devices have been made which themselves combine the pouring function and the measuring function so that as the pouring operation proceeds, a fixed volume of liquid will be dispensed with each pouring operation. However, many of these devices are bulky and have complicated inner structures. In addition, the complexity of the device make it difficult and expensive to manufacture. Further, many of these devices are undependable and inaccurate when attempts are made to rapidly and successively dispense liquid therefrom in controlled quantities. Therefore, there remains a need for a self-measuring container that can reliably dispense a specific amount of liquid while at the same time having a simplified structure which facilitates manufacturing.